Commonwealth War Grave Dutch Reformed Cemetery Made

Made Protestant Cemetery contains one Commonwealth War Grave.
This is the grave of Gordon Emery Chandler, a British pilot from Toddington (England).

On 13 May 1940 during the German invasion of Holland a two seater 'Bolton Paul Defiant Mk.1' nightfighter took off from RAF Duxford (England) at 4.15. Together with five Defiants and six Spitfires this Defiant had a mission to attack German troops at the Dutch coastline. In the surroundings of IJmuiden (Holland) the plane came under attack by Dutch anti aircraft guns. After they signalled the letter of the day (every day a new letter was given, this letter could be signalled from the aircraft. This method was also used a lot by droppings for the resistance) the Dutch ceased fire immediately. Later in the surroundings of Rotterdam the British pilotes saw German Stuka's bombing Dutch positions. Chandler and the other British pilots took them immediately under attack but after a short moment they were under attack themselves by approximately 25 German Messerschmitt BF109 fighters. Chandler and his gunner McLeish crashed at 5.30 in 'National Park the Biesbosch'. The body of McLeish was found six weeks later and was buried in Werkendam (Holland), but the body of Chandler was only found after 11 months after clearing the crashsite. Chandler was brought to Made and was buried on this cemetery.

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